Welcome to Main Street.
Ellen Russell, director PCMSA

Main Street Board of Directors

This is not just any Main Street; this is Pontotoc County Main Street Association.  In fact we have six Main Street Downtown areas in Pontotoc County.  The story starts October 2006 when our application was completed and mailed to the Mississippi Main Street Association in Jackson for the approval of our plan for the entire county to be part of our program.  Questions started to fly. How would an entire county work together?  Pontotoc County, being the unique county that we all love, came together with a strong plan.  Pontotoc, Sherman, Ecru, and the County Supervisors joined together to pledge their resources to this revitalization efforts.  We were approved and the race was on.

Mississippi Main Street Association like the rest of the country apply the Four Point Approach proven by the National Trust’s National Main Street Center to be a successful comprehensive strategy to commercial a  districts revitalization.  These four committees and a board had to be put in place for our project to work.

The Main Street project is more an economic asset, not just a fix-up project.  The Main Street Project deals with the full spectrum of issues that effect a district. The four point approach reads as:

The governing body of the committees is the Board of Directors.  The board and committees are volunteer driven, making a private/public sector into an effective partnership.

By January 30th, our committees and board was in place and ready to get started. The designation service was held in the courtroom of the Pontotoc County Courthouse with representatives from all over the county ready to celebrate our County.

In the courtroom, we had members of the Mississippi Main Street Association here to help with the presentation.  Some of those attending were; Sam Agnew, director of Program Services, Melissa Medley, MDA director of communications, Suzanne Smith, MMSA Board President, and Bob Wilson, MMSA director, all of which were ready to challenge us as the 51st member in the Association and the first County Wide project. Accepting the plaque was Sherman’s Mayor Ben Logan, Ecru’s Mayor Tom Todd, Pontotoc Mayor Bill Rutledge, and Pontotoc County Board President Wayne Stokes.  This started our training session for our committees and board which turned into a pep rally of a kind for our program.

Since the designation we have continued with our training on the Board level.  Completing work on our mission statement and discussions of a plan of work for the committees has been our focus.  The Board is made up of a diverse group of people with a common goal of preserving Pontotoc.  The members are: Lisa Bryant, president, Donnie Benjamin, Kathy Williamson, Millicent Seawright, Jack Savely, Shane Clayton, Bruce McCoy, Ken Nowlin, Kay Davis, Paul Thompson, Flo Rodgers, Dianne Jolly, and Jolene Tutor.

Basically we are here to make Pontotoc County Shine for all to see.  The downtown areas of each community are the heart beat of our county.  We have a lot of potential in Pontotoc County. When people travel they want to see unique places.  This is one of the most successful economic development programs in the nation and based in historical preservation.

The program has to have the community support and long term commitment to be a success.  Our future looks very bright; however we have an enormous task before the whole county.  Together we are responsible for providing a place our children and grandchildren would be glad to live and prosper.

My worse problem is facing the fact it can’t happen over night.  We all like to have instant gratification.  But by organizing ourselves and following the four point approach we can reach our goals and preserve our downtown areas.

We have a very busy agenda to follow in order is accomplish job.  The resource team from the Mississippi Main Street Association has a planned trip to our area to help in suggestion on our program of work. They too, know how unique our task is for the whole county. It takes hard work and commitment by the community to become and maintain its designation as a Main Street community. I know Pontotoc County has made that commitment and is ready for the job.